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We’ve been Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana photographers for a lonnnnng time. Feels like a good time to stretch our legs, and flex our muscles. The past couple of years we’ve decided that we are destination wedding photographers, since we’re thrilled to go anywhere with our tools. That was a no-brainer. It’s now time we … Continue reading We ARE Indianapolis Wedding Photographers

After relocating here over a year ago, we realize we need to embed a little better. It’s time to come out of our comfortable success story and act hungry for a while, to get your attention. That’s why we’ve decided to offer $1000 off what would ordinarily be YOUR wedding’s charges, after we hear about … Continue reading Save $1000 on Wabash Wedding Photography

Maddy and Andrew had their first baby a few short weeks ago. I had taken their engagement portraits a couple of years ago, but not their wedding. Maddy grew up in Northern Michigan and they had a local photographer do that for them. When Maddy called me to ask if we’d visit, she started out … Continue reading Maddy and Andrew’s House / Fort Wayne Family Photography

Category: Fort Wayne Photography Promotion

When you open a bridal magazine or planning book, you see wildly romantic wedding photography, sometimes even mildly erotic bride and groom portraits. I love this, myself. Some of them are like 21st century versions of gothic romance covers.

You need to know a couple of things about these images, if this is what you want from your photographer.

FIRST, a competent photographer feels excited and intrigued at the notion that this is what you want. They won’t wince, or draw back; they’ll lean forward and breathe a bit harder.

The OTHER first, (because it IS NOT second) is that these photos take time. Not hours, usually (unless we’re driving to an historic location an hour from your reception venue) but time – away, without your best man yanking your chain because you’re showing your new wife some love, away – from your mother who is to my right saying “HONEY! SMILE!”, away – from Grandma, who wants to coo and have her bachelor son with too-much-camera-for-his-skill jump in front of me and say “Let me get one”. If it’s not an ornately staged production shot, but you still want something romantic, and less Ken and Barbie-ish than your sister’s, you still need SOME time budgeted in your day!

If you want creative/unique work from your photographer, please discuss your timeline with the photographer more than once prior to the week before your wedding. Allow time. This can be worked out.

A great way to do this is to take some time together BEFORE the wedding.

STOP.

DON’T LOOK AWAY NOW.

Listen!

I personally love this, and consider it more romantic. Let me tell you why!

I urge the couple to choose a spot to see each other for the first time. I have the groom turn his back and have the bride approach. He turns and gets to see her FIRST, and review every detail of her, and she HIM. They get to say things to each other, compliment each other, soak each other in. The boutonnière is not crushed by the receiving line before she is alone with him. Her veil, hair and make-up are not wrinkled and wilted by hugs and perspiration. They are the first to see EACH OTHER, and in my experience, the stress bubble begins to deflate, and I see these two people begin to ENJOY their wedding day. They’ve seen each other (their best friend); they begin experiencing their day TOGETHER. The dynamics of that kind of wedding day are immensely different from the scenario where he paces and sweats, she fumbles and tears up constantly, and the tension is what gets documented the first part of the day.

Many times I have heard resistance to this idea, and the notion that “if he sees me before the wedding he won’t feel that rush of seeing me at the other end of the aisle, it won’t be the same, and it won’t be the way it’s supposed to be.” Remember folks, I have photographed LOTS of weddings now. I watch these people all day. The notion that he won’t look down the aisle and say to himself, “Here she comes. There she is. The girl I’m about to marry.” Believe me, the groom still wells up, the best man still pats him on the back, the bride still feels all the emotions she would have. After all, she is STILL walking toward Prince Charming on her dad’s arm, she is STILL about to marry the man she loves, her life is still about to change forever, there are still all her friends standing up as she enters….and that walk is still a very special one!

So, to recap, creative portraits take time to photograph. Of course we can do it after the wedding and before the reception, while your mom is hissing “HONEY, the guests are waiting” or we can get them done before, and then you two sail out of the church, onto the party bus or limo, have some extra time with your friends on the way, and you get there before the hoers oeuvres are gone.

If you’re certain you’d rather not see one another beforehand, you can always put a delay between your ceremony and reception to get some fun shots with your wedding party, and then your new spouse. We can stop along the route to the reception, I’ll even ride in the limo if you’d like. If you’d rather, when we’re all finished, I’ll race you to the party, get detail shots of your table settings, your place cards, and your cake before there’s a crowd around it, and greet you as the DJ announces to your guests that you’ve arrived.

Either way, if you plan it into your day, we get the photographs you’ve hoped for. The ones your girlfriends, sons and daughters will ooh and ahh over for generations. Either way, we get the documentary of your day. This is the only thing you have left after the gifts are put away and the gown is cleaned.

Your preparation for what you want is just as important as mine, if you want more than the standard fare in your wedding album.

On the other end of the spectrum, if all you want is the standard fare, you DO NOT want one of those photographers that takes you away from your guests for hours before you get to the party. Check with other brides, talk to them, and don’t take their written word on the website for the final word. Was this person a commando who was rude to the guests? Did they have great ideas, or did they look to the wedding party for guidance? Did the contract they signed represent what REALLY happened? Did this bride get her pictures in a timely fashion? Were they what she had hoped for? If there were any problems or questions whatsoever, did the photographer handle them in a CAN-DO way with prompt responses, and solutions to her issues?

So, to conclude…I don’t want to be rude, but it’s true in some odd ways. Hiring a photographer is like buying a car. It can be pretty and shiny in their portfolio and their website, but they may be letting people down left and right, and if you don’t check, you’re stuck with a big clunker for the rest of your life.

We are working with two of the best beauty experts in the area, and offering you something we don’t think anyone else is doing! You and your girlfriends can have a safe and fun time, doing something you’ve always said would be a BLAST! Some wine, a safe place, some little pretties to make you feel like the beauty you are, and your girl posse reinforcements to help you feel brave! Nothing too raunchy. Just gorgeous you (whatever your size), in the comfort of a place you feel safe, a beauty expert, other girlfriends (or not), and me ~~ Suzanne. The outcome? PROOF that you really ARE amazingly beautiful, and that you are bolder than you thought you could be! Then a boxed set of that proof, as a gift for someone else, or simply something for you to slip into a drawer and remind yourself that you do rock….just like you secretly thought you did.

Have questions? OF COURSE you do! Call.

This process ordinarily costs $500.00, and reaps a gift of 10 fine art 8x10s in a luxurious boxed set. This months’ promotion (separate from this offer) adds a beautiful leather album to that! All you have to do is book your session this month for any future date!

I’ve been pretty mad lately. A pipe broke and I have had to remodel the whole back of my house. My furnace nearly killed us in our sleep, and there are guys here right now, making this costly repair. My husband works out-of-town, and I see him every six weeks or so. A beloved pet died suddenly, and we had to bury him in the cold hard ground. Someone has been walking around telling people she worked for me, when I’d never heard of her.

I turn on the news today and I see that lots of parents have lost their children and life partners, and I realize how lucky I am.

I have pipes to break while other people sleep beside dumpsters tonight. I have a furnace to replace, and as much of a struggle as this is, I have the resources to pay to replace the one I have, while other people cannot pay for fuel, and are losing their homes. My husband works, while other people’s husbands have been laid to rest after war, or passed to the other side after horrible bouts with cancer, etc. I have a company that someone thought was talented enough to want others to think she worked for it.

Tonight when I walk out into my yard and look up at the starry night, I will again say THANK YOU to the universe for what I do have. During this holiday season, I hope that each one of you can find a way to do the same thing.

Something has happened in the last 24 hours which has horrified me, and brought me to a place where I am even more peaceful with my digital file allowances, and policies for online viewing. I want to share this story with YOU, because it seems so simple, and so easy, and probably nearly cost me my reputation as a photographer, and as a business owner.

Someone named Ashley is saying she works for me. She is telling people to go see my site and see MY work, along with offering HER phone number, saying she is out of business cards. I employ NO SUCH PERSON. The work on my site is primarily shot by me, and the few images that are not mine were shot by Brandon Wittwer, Heidi Hathaway or Eden Kilcoin. All these people work with me, have been mentored by me and do excellent work. I don’t know who Ashley is, but boy—I’d LOVE to find out.

I recently had a few tense moments with a bride who hadn’t read through her contract, or even the letter enclosed with her digital files. BOTH say very clearly that images from my company must have my logo attached to be presented online in any way. I have had other photographers (not many) say “why bother? People will download them anyway.” I bother because of THIS. There are photographers this past year that have launched full websites with gorgeous images, NONE OF WHICH was theirs. These people have booked brides and portraits from consumers who love those images, and expect ones similar to them in style, and technique, when the person they’ve hired has lied to them and portrayed her/himself as someone capable of such work.

Now that anyone and everyone has a great digital camera, many many many every day are hanging out their shingles, and calling themselves photographers. I wish them all luck. I do. I came from nothing, and I built this company through hard work, and hard knocks. They can do that too, if they stick with it and continue their educations and their diligence. They have great cameras, they may have a great eye, and they may have growing technique that will get them far. I hope that for them. What they do NOT have is the experience I have. They do not have the list of clients I have that speak well of me. They don’t have decades of beautiful photos to show at meetings or online. Know what else they don’t have? This list in my head of times I have ALREADY screwed up and disappointed people, and done what it took to make things right and learned the hard way how to make my clients happy, and how to work under excruciatingly challenging conditions.

Bottom line: I am never out of business cards. No one who ever represents me will ever be out of business cards. Call ME about your photos. My number is here, on my website, on my proofing site and all over the internet. I book the people who go out on my behalf, and that is a verrrrry rare occurrence.

Ashley, I am going tonight and shooting portraits of the band you told someone you’d shoot. Thank you for the left-handed referral. If I ever find out who you are, my lawyers and I will make an experience for you that you will NEVER forget. Until then, I’m looking for you, and now at least 2000 other people are aware of you too.

I am a Fort Wayne Indiana Defiance Ohio professional photographer!

Friends, I’m asking you to share this. I worry that this is way too common in this business now. I worked hard. They can work hard too, and I wish them all success in the world, but they DO NOT get to ride on my coat tails!

This is a picture of MY face photographed by Brandon Wittwer. (Thanks B!)

Not many people can say they make their living doing something they love. Not many can say that what they do for a living makes others happy, and gives them an important keepsake that future generations will also enjoy.

I am blessed, and for that reason, this year I am starting BLESSED Friday. While you are shopping for your loved ones, let me be your gift to them. Buy a portrait for them, and receive one for yourself. That’s right, whatever you give, you’ll get for yourself too. If you give your granddaughter $500 toward her wedding photos, you will get a $500 gift certificate for yourself, toward a large family portrait, or any other service I provide.

It’s as simple as a call or an email. Let us know what you’d like to give, or what dollar amount, we invoice you, you pay with any credit card, and we send you 2 gift certificates to print. We’d be happy to mail them to the recipient for you. Just say the word.

This offer will last until the Sunday after Thanksgiving at 9PM. Do you have questions? Call! 260.385.6329

Brittney and I have been floating very near the same circles of people for years now.
We both do services for the Fort Wayne area, and are held in high esteem.
It was inevitable that sooner or later the centrifuge of life would spin us together!
I’m so glad it finally happened. Brittney has a five month old ANGEL of a child named Nadia.
Nadia’s grandmother had crocheted a mermaid costume for her for Halloween, and so it was decided that portraits were in order.

LOOK at this little angel. I cannot wait to see her again. This first visit kept me floating for hours!

The weather is cooler, and there are less calls and emails between now and January. The wind is howling outside from the edge of the hurricane, and it’s just not pretty out there. I’ve been indoors a lot this past few weeks, so I’ve been cleaning a lot.

I’ve gotten so ambitious, and honestly so curious and bored that I have decided to look inside boxes I have been moving around for years and years. (There is a digging deep metaphor that applies here that I don’t want to be lost on you!) My birthday is next week, which brings me to TWO years older than dirt, and it’s time to move the fur and dust inside those boxes aside, and look hard at what’s in them.

I’m a hoarder, I’ll admit it. I had a talk with a friend many years ago when he asked me why I still had every Daytimer from the time I moved out of my parent’s house. I opened one up, and showed him why. “Deb’s birthday party Friday, bring rum and a blanket.” “Going to David’s wedding? RSVP by May.” “I just don’t want to forget”, I told him. (It still brings big tears to my eyes.) “If I throw them out, I might forget.” He gave me the biggest hug. I kept them for a few years after that conversation, scoured them again, and then I burned them in the back yard in a slightly boozy ceremony all by myself on a night a lot like tonight.

Today I found all the notes my ex-husband and I wrote back and forth. We were too busy to see each other because we were working so hard, and they are so sweet and so dense with info while being just a fleeting message, often with arrows to who-knows-what beside the pad saying things like “enjoy, you deserve it”, etc. We really loved each other once, before life happened to us and we handled it badly. I found a letter my brother wrote in a birthday card that made me cry then, and makes me cry today. (He’s wicked with words, too.) I found letters from my sister from times when she lived far away and then I did.

Slipped in many of the envelopes today were pictures. My daughter kept asking “What?!” as I’d sigh too loud, or burst into shrill laughter, or just a single “OH!”. I was young and pretty once. Other people told me, but I never believed it. In fact quite the contrary. My friends were young and pretty too, and we had fun. I can prove it!

My words of wisdom for the day are these: PRINT YOUR PICTURES. Take the time and the effort once in a while to have something you can hold in your hand, put in your purse or wallet, and send to your friend for their fridge or their desk. Print them so your kids and grandkids can say “You wore THAT?!”

I told a client the other day “I want to make sure you have at least one thing in your home I’m responsible for creating about which people walk in and say “WOW”!” With all the talk, much of it mine lately, about digital files vs prints…just make sure some of your life is on hard copy. It’s way more important than you may think right now.

“……………Time it was, and what a time it was, it was A time of innocence, a time of confidences Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph Preserve your memories, they’re all that’s left you……” Paul Simon

Wedding coordinator for your wedding day? Wouldn’t it be great?! No one asks you where the pew bows are, or when the florist should be there. It WILL be great, because beginning next year, we will take care of all that for you.

We’ve seen the need, we’ve discussed it, and we’ve decided we can provide this better than anyone. Who knows the timeline of your day better than we do? Who knows what’s most important and what you really do NOT want better than we do? It’s a no brainer, and we are psyched about it! We have hired someone with supreme organization, and an eye for detail to begin caring for our brides all day long. It’s someone we’ve known for years, and who has a proven track record of caring for people in a way that makes them feel heard and cared for! You’ll love her as much as we do!

This is just another way for you to get the care you deserve to enjoy your wedding day, and let us provide you with what you need most! A day of your own with your lover, pulled off like clockwork because we take the stress and leave you the fun!

I was so lucky to be able to shoot this wedding for these two in this incredible venue!

They responded to a promotion we had offered earlier this year trying to get into cool places where we had not previously worked. I got to shoot their engagement and then made a movie poster for their wedding day in an old restored theater, The Philmore on Broadway. The theme of their wedding was old movie love stories! Charming and fun, and in such a cool place!

Ean and Jessica are crazy about each other! So much so that after the wedding, when it was time to kiss his bride, he didn’t want to stop, and lunged forward to get another kiss before they were proclaimed husband and wife. Their dinner was divine, flowers from Armstrongs were impeccable as always, and the day and night ran like clockwork thanks to a wedding planner we were so impressed with; Shawna at LaBella Eden, and her assistant Robin.

Congratulations Vanstroms! Thank you for choosing us! Here’s to a long and wonderful life together!